Finley shoots Spurs to 7th straight win

Posted: Monday, March 31, 2008

The Associated Press

SAN ANTONIO - After missing all his field goals against one of the San Antonio Spurs' in-state rivals a week ago, Michael Finley tweaked his pregame routine in hopes that he would perform a little better against the other.

Finley scored 22 points Sunday and the Spurs picked up their seventh straight win with an easy 109-88 victory against the Houston Rockets.

"Last week I couldn't buy a bucket," said Finley, who shot 0-of-7 against the Dallas Mavericks last Sunday.

"Last night I made sure I got to bed early. Got up early. My wife cooked me a good breakfast. ... I was ready to go."

Tony Parker added another 22 points and Tim Duncan had 13 for the Spurs, who have 51 wins - the most in the tightly packed Western Conference.

"He was on fire," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said of Finley.

The much-hyped matchup between the Southwest Division rivals turned out to be more of a dud.

The Spurs had the lead for nearly the entire game and led by as many as 25 points. The Spurs shot 53 percent from the field and had 21 assists to the Rockets' 12.

"They got us on our heels early," Houston coach Rick Adelman said. "They played extremely well offensively. We never got a handle on this game."

Luis Scola scored a season-high 24 points for the Rockets. Tracy McGrady - most often matched up against Spurs top defender Bruce Bowen - and Rafer Alston each had 13 points after shooting a combined 9-for-38.

"I thought we did a good job of keeping them out of the paint, which is their strength," McGrady said. "Today, they were making jumpers."

"It was fun to come out and compete for 48 minutes tonight," Bowen said.

n Warriors 114, Mavericks 104: At Oakland, Calif., Monta Ellis scored 30 points and Kelenna Azubuike hit two clutch shots down the stretch to help the Golden State Warriors beat the Dallas Mavericks to create a three-way tie for seventh place in the ultracompetitive Western Conference.

With nine games remaining, Dallas, Golden State and Denver are all even at 45-28. If the season ended today, the Warriors would be on the outside looking in at the playoffs because they have lost two of three to both the Nuggets and Mavericks.

But if Golden State manages to beat Denver and Dallas in their final meetings, the Mavericks would be the odd team out in a three-way tie.